America [antikvár]

INTRODUCTIONA great, sparkling ocean spreads out to the horizon, as it has done for millions of years. Sunlight catches the tips of the waves, reflecting in the same way that dazzled the earliest European settlers four centuries ago. But a thin ribbon of white spray on this vast sea betrays the presence of man. At the head of the ribbon, always pushing it forward as it disintegrates behind, is one of the many pleasure craft that sail the waters off the east coast of America.On a warm summer morning the density of the craft surging out of the various harbors and inlets along the coast is astounding. They stream from the marinas around New York City like the spreadingstruts of some enormous fan, and return in the evening like a thousand white streamers sucked down a funnel. The multitude of craft which forms this feature of the summer scene on the Atlantic coast is an indication of the number of people who live in the land beyond. It is along this thin strip that perhaps the greatest concentration of humanity on the continent is found. Mighty cities crowd in upon one another, their suburbs almost touching. New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and a host of others, provide home and work for millions. At their centers the cities soar like man-made mountain crags to heights which make them a serious threat to any unwary bird - or aeroplane. Giant buildings rise sheer from the water's edge and dwarf the automobiles and buses that weave along the roads between them.Out from the city hubs the dwellings become the low-lying structures associated with the commuter belt. Here the streets are broader and the buildings far from obvious from the air, partially hidden as they are beneath the branches of the trees which line and interweave the streets and roads. The suburbs would almost give the impression of endless tracts of untouched forest were it not for the freeways, which carve swathes through the land, and their junctions, which reveal centers of population.The great interstate highways which run between major cities also twist inland across a landscape increasingly broken and rugged. The ground rises, first in low fluctuations, then in great ridges of rock, to form the mighty Appalachians. Running from the Atlantic and the Canadian border southwestward into the continent, the long, parallel valleys and peaks form one of the most distinctive landscapes in the east. The snow-capped summits of the highest mountains stand out like pristine napkins on the green and brown patchwork of the land.Much used by skiing enthusiasts in the winter months, the mountains have been shaped to cater to the sport. Huge pathways down the slopes have been cleared of trees to provide an uninterrupted course where great speeds can be attained. During the summer months, however, when the crowds have gone with the snows, the fabulous ski runs are nothing more than scars on the dark forests which blanket the mountain slopes.And beneath the dark forest canopy, flowing water catches the sunlight, reflecting it like myriad, ever-shifting mirrors. Leaping in sparkling cascades down the steep slopes, the babbling streams carry water from the melting snows and falling rain of the heights away on its long journey to the sea. Following age-old courses, far more ancient even than the mighty mountains, the streams run off in different directions. Long before the massive forces thrust the rocks upwards to form the Appalachian Mountains, rivers ran across the landscape of eastern America. As the beds of rock, thousands of feet thick, began to rise, twist and buckle, the rivers continued to flow. In some areas the torrent of water was so great that the rivers cut canyons and gullies along which to flow on their old courses as the mountains rose.The brooks which fall down the western slopes of the Appalachians join to form broad, powerful rivers which snake away into the heart of the country. Growing in strength and power with every mile, the broad flows move ever southwestwards, collecting water from the land they pass and the countless streams which join them on their way. Winding between the farms, villages and towns of the valleys, for many years the rivers were the main transportation routes in these regions. When the first farmers crossed the Appalachians to escape the crowding of their fellows to the east, they moved their goods on flat-bottomed craft along the rivers, and in the north an artificial river, the Erie Canal, had later to be built to link them with the east coast.As the white man moved on, lands to the south and west emerged from the wilderness and became more than blank spaces on the maps of the nation. The great rivers were traversed and mapped, and were found to be as good downstream as up. The broad ribbons of blue, which are today empty of all but the occasional pleasure craft, would then have been thick with smoke-belchingmonsters churning the river behind them. When the waters from the mountains join the flow which began far to the north at Lake Itasca, they create the most majestic river in the